1. Field of the Invention
The embodiments of the invention provide a system and method for enabling voice driven interactions among multiple interactive voice response systems, and more particularly to a system and method that controls tasks between multiple voice systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
Interactive Voice Response systems (IVRs) are used by many organizations to interact with their customers and clients. IVR's are typically resident within the domain of a single enterprise, and are used to communicate with a user in order to accomplish a transaction (banking queries, airline reservation, flight schedule, etc.). Voice-driven interfaces have become very popular in acting as front-ends for several backend applications (airline reservation, flight schedule, etc.)
Workflows (human, machine or software) are commonly used to efficiently accomplish tasks. A lot of automation has been possible due to standardization, such as business process execution language (BPEL), web service definition language (WSDL), etc. For several workflow or processes, there are points where a unit of the workflow has to interact with humans. This interaction may occur using any interface, but is usually predetermined; the most common being text/data based.
An IVR application has two main components: the telephony channel that handles the call, and the backend application logic that drives the content of the call. For cross IVR applications apart from the call context transfer, application context transfer also needs to be performed. Examples of a call context include caller identification and the dialed number. Examples of an application context include the IVR menu option in the source IVR, user details, and target IVR menu option to switch to. Traditional telecom protocols (such as those in public switched telephone network (PSTN) network) restrict the application context that can be sent ‘in-band’, i.e., along with the call.
In addition, people in remote areas need information. Most of this information is local—restricted to within the geographical area (a few nearby villages/towns). The Internet does not help since most of the truly local information is not available on the Internet. Moreover, remote areas typically do not have reliable Internet connectivity and residents having little exposure to technology neither have a PC, nor the skills to operate it. However, the mobile penetration has increased tremendously in the last few years. Furthermore, current banking methods are not economically viable for delivering banking solutions at reasonable rates to the remote and sparsely populated areas with low transaction volume. The embodiments herein provide a pervasive, cost-effective, user-friendly medium for information capture and delivery to non-tech savvy users in remote areas.